Comparison of the Incidence of Complications and Secondary Surgical Interventions Necessary in Patients with Chronic Lower Limb Ischemia Treated by Both Open and Endovascular Surgeries.

BACKGROUND

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) affects 3%-10% of the population before the age of 70 years and 15%-20% after that age.The aim of the study was to compare the incidence of complications and secondary interventions in patients who underwent each type of treatment.

METHODS

We analyzed 734 medical records of the Department of Surgery at the 4th Military Teaching Hospital in Wroclaw, In total, 394 were operated on with open surgery; an endarterectomy (59.39%), a vascular prosthesis implantation (31.01%), or both of these techniques (6.6%), and 340 patients had angioplasty with (50.59%) or without stenting (49.41%).

RESULTS

There were no statistically significant differences in the incidence of corresponding complications. The exception was the infection of the wound; significantly fewer were reported in the case of endovascular procedures (p = 0.0087). There were 12 occasions (3.53%) during endovascular surgeries when intraoperative conversion or re-operation using the open method occurred. In the case of open surgery, the mean hospital stay was 7.77 days (median: 8, mode: 8), while for endovascular management it was equal to 4.68 days (median: 4, mode: 3), p <0.0001.

CONCLUSION

The endovascular method results in a similar re-operation rate and number of complications as open surgery.